In news

Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat launched the River Cities Alliance (RCA), a dedicated platform for river cities in India to ideate, discuss and exchange information for sustainable management of urban rivers.

Participants

The alliance has been signed by 30 members across the country including the cities like Dehradun, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Srinagar, Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Aurangabad, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Pune, Udaipur, Vijayawada.

Objective

To provide the member cities with a platform to discuss and exchange information on aspects that are vital for sustainable management of urban rivers such as minimizing their water footprint, reducing impacts on river and water bodies, capitalizing on natural, intangible, architectural heritage and associated services and develop self-sufficient, self-sustainable water resources through recycle, reuse strategy.

Significance

• The river alliance will be an embodiment of the people’s movement, ensuring the engagement of the people with the natural resources and promoting the sense to conserve the resources. 
• The key intention of the alliance is to improve the rivers and map them with urban planning and developmental programmes.
• This offers a platform where the cities can learn from each other’s successes and failures with the assistance of municipal administrators.
• The alliance can significantly contribute towards minimizing the water footprint, preventing pollutants’ entry into the water bodies and capitalizing on architectural heritage.
• Under this initiative, national policies with river-related directives can be adopted and facilitate a proper Urban River Management Plan. This will empower the governance of river cities and help in attracting external economic investment.